[leilani]

about Palin not costing Obama votes, well duh! It's about increasing the conservative turnout. The same turnout people like you were dismissing in 2004, until Kerry was hit by a tsunami on Election Day.

Exactly. This is a basic reality the snobby conservative commentariat turning up their collective know-it-all nose at Palin aren't getting either.

McCain was totally in the hole with rank & file enthusiasm, local voluntarism & GOTV machinery until he selected her. This is something that the "chattering classist" Peggy Noonans & Christopher Buckleys of this world don't seem to have the slenderest tendril of a grasp on.

To win elections, you need to gin up the meter on the rank & file in flyover country, not on the newsfloor at CNN, and that's exactly what Palin did for McCain. And it's not bloody likely that any other pol a myopic beltway hostage like Peggy Noonan would have preferred as VP - or for that matter whom I might have preferred, could have done that, either.

[impeachedrapist]

To win elections, you need to gin up the meter on the rank & file in flyover country, not on the newsfloor at CNN, and that's exactly what Palin did for McCain.

That's exactly right. Before McCain selected Palin, I was seriously concerned we might see turnout percentages along the lines of 2006 (Dems +3). I haven't had that worry since he chose her.